Darius Carrick

Highend WordPress Theme Roadmap: Amazing Improvements for 2017

Posted
on June 29, 2017

Highend is our most popular WordPress theme with a continuously growing community. Even though it’s one of our best, HB Themes continues to improve it and make it easier to use. We at MOJO Marketplace and HB-Themes want to keep you up-to-date on those improvements and what the coming weeks and months will bring to Highend.

Branko Čonjić of HB-Themes has provided us with a breakdown of updates coming Highend in the near future. We encourage all of our sellers to do the same.

The more work we can do to communicate how great your products are, the better we can be at connecting people with the themes and products they need. Feel free to email our seller manager Sam Dean for more information.

Introducing HB Themes Custom Framework

The biggest improvement over the old version is that we decided to drop the bloated Vafpress framework we‘ve been using in Highend since its release. Instead, we built our own completely custom theme framework.

The new framework is a lot faster, leaner, more organized, and better looking!

Here are some of the highlights from the new framework:

Theme Options – Our new, custom built theme options panel is 70% faster than the original! There’s a new design, better performance, and a whole bunch of new options. Also, you don’t have to worry about your old options because Highend will seamlessly upgrade your database.

Page Settings – No more confusing meta boxes on pages. They’re now located under a single tab called “Page Settings.” it’s better organized, loads faster, and expands the options.

Demo Importer – The new demo importer is faster, more effective, and allows us to include even more demos that you can import with one click.

Plugin Installer – You can easily install and update all plugins bundled with Highend in just one click. The new plugin installer handles premium bundled plugins better.

Setup Wizard – If you are new to WordPress, you will love this feature! It allows you to completely setup Highend plugins and demos in just a few clicks.

Icon Library – Thousands of available vector icons are listed directly in the backend of your Dashboard, so you can easily search and find the one you need.

Font Manager – Along with the 818+ Google fonts available, you can now use Adobe Typekit fonts!

Faster Loading Times through Code Refactoring

We have completely refactored the theme code. In other words, Highend will now load much faster and have less HTTP requests on load.

The PHP code has been rewritten with latest coding standards and is fully PHP 7 compatible.

All unnecessary jQuery libraries are removed. All the Javascript ihas been rewritten, optimized, minified, and combined for faster page loading. You will also notice better scrolling performance because of improved scripts and removed event listeners.

The CSS files have also been completely rewritten, optimized, minified, and combined.

Highend will now serve Adaptive Images based on which device website is being shown to. This means your website will load much faster than before on more devices!

Dynamic styles from the theme options and customizer have also been written in a minified external file, which now can be cached and served much faster.

Fresh Design

The updated version of the theme will come with refreshed design up-to-date with 2017 trends.

New Elements Added to Visual Composer & Highend

A bunch of new elements for Visual Composer and more options for existing elements will allow you to create even more unique sections in Highend.

New Demos with More Versatility

Our new demos show the versatility of Highend.

Over 50 new and professionally designed niche demos will be released in 2017. All demos will be included for the regular price and will be available for customers who have already purchased Highend.

Let us know in the comments section if you have an idea for a demo!

Theme Documentation

The Highend theme documentation will be completely rewritten to cover every possible aspect of the theme. Frequently asked questions and quick how-tos from our support forum will be included as well.

Narrated Video Tutorials

Several narrated how-to videos will be released in the next few months.

Highend Chat Support

In addition to our support forum with over 12,000 resolved questions, a live chat support will be available soon.

Faster Loading & Better Performance Scores (A+)

Faster loading time and excellent performance scores is something that you can expect.

Certain Post Types Soon to Be Replaced by Shortcodes

There are some custom post types that will become deprecated with the new version, such as:

FAQ

Pricing Tables

Testimonials

Clients

These elements will not be removed any time soon, but they will be marked as deprecated and users will be directed to use new shortcode alternatives for these elements. The deprecated elements will be removed in the future.

Let’s Make Highend Better Together!

If you have an idea or feature request, we’d love to hear it! Use the comment section below to let us know.

Get ready for these awesome updates coming your way over the next few weeks and months.

Are you a seller with MOJO Marketplace? Submit your theme updates through our seller manager Sam Dean and work with us to write your own post just like this!

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About Darius Carrick

Darius is a content marketer with a passion for empowering people to create their dreams. With MOJO, you can learn new skills, build great experiences, and have a good time doing it. Got questions? Need help? Leave me a comment! View all articles by Darius Carrick.

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